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Panang Curry

So I've eaten thai red curry for the last four days, lunch and dinner. Now it's time -- b/c I have no red curry left -- to move on to panang. Is panang a red curry, and therefore can I substitute panang paste for my "homestyle red curry" paste in the recipe I've been using? Or do I prepare it differently?

We're really talking about two usages of the word "Penang curry," right? First there's the curry seasoning mixture. So, for example, if you get the Mae Ploy red and Penang curry pastes, they're not too terribly different. But then there's also the question of Penang curry the dish, and that's pretty different from a standard Thai curry. It's more of a meat-with-gravy dish than a stew.

I'm not sure how much coconut milk you're currently using or whether you're using any other liquids as well, but in a Penang curry you'd want to use about half a cup of coconut milk for maybe half a pound of meat. You warm the milk, mix the milk with the curry paste, and simmer it for a few minutes. Then you add the rest of the ingredients.

I must admit I have not heard of Penang Curry - Due to my ignorance I thought it was Malay. Is it Thai ? A meat-with-gravy reference by Steven would make me believe that it's origin is indeed Malay with influences from the migrant South-Indian Muslim community in the late 19th, early 20th century. Just a hypothesis .........

Southeast Asia is such a wonderful mishmash of dishes borrowed, stolen, and crammed down eager throats, that you can find twelve opinions on the origin of any dish. As for Panang curry, the name sounds Malay, but the curry as currently constituted is closer to a Thai red curry than anything else. Although I guess it would be kind of like rendang if you used stewed beef. I'm not saying it didn't come from Malaysia, but it would be hard to prove either way.

I don't know about cardamom, but many Thai red curry pastes I've seen do contain cumin. I'm sure there are "official" differences between the formulations of the two pastes, but if you use a Penang curry paste as a straight substitute for a red curry paste the difference in the final product is not huge. The differences really come out when you follow the Penang-style "dry" preparation method.